Barbara G. Tucker is the author of five novels: Bringing Abundance Back, The Unexpected Christmas Visitors, Traveling Through, Cross Road, and Legacy. She is also a college administrator, professor of communication, mother, wife, ESL instructor, Bible teacher, and follower of Jesus Christ. She lives in Northwest Georgia.

Wednesday, July 05, 2017

Fresh Look at Matthew: Matthew 13:58

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The verse states, “Now he did not do many mighty works
there because of their unbelief.”That’s
a reason to think about.We say belief
comes from seeing mighty works, but it operates the other way, too.Belief leads to seeing mighty works.I take that at the face value, but at a
deeper sense.A person who sees the
world with belief will see mighty works that others take for granted as
nothing, because they do not slow down to see their mightiness and they do not
attribute the works and their mightiness, their miraculous nature, to God.Seeing miracles makes us more grateful, too.

“Mighty” is interesting.Healing crowds is mighty—where else are they going to see healings like
this?

Jesus bluntly states, “A prophet is not appreciated by
those closest to him.”This may not be
“original” with Jesus but he sanctifies it.Those closest to us may think they know us better, but they also, as
here, have reason to dismiss us and to be jealous of us.That seems to be the case here.“He’s nobody special, he’s just one of us,
why is he doing this?He’s causing
trouble.”They may have feared
retaliation, too, from Rome or even the religious elites (I don't know that we should call them leaders).Although that is not explicitly stated here, human emotions are
complicated and there could be mixed reasons why they reject Jesus and his
works.

The text leads us to see them not
so much as fearful as offended and scandalized.Scandal comes from shame and believing something is out of order, not
right.To their thinking, Jesus was out
of order.